from ireland and germany, many generations ago or my in-laws and brother's side of the family a generation ago from mexico. in every case, the people who by and large have come to america have come with a dream of living a better life than their children. getting an education, working hard. in many cases starting up their businesses and living the american dream and we ought to find a way to make that more possible. now, that also means we live in a society of rules and so we need to abide by the laws that i think there are practical ways to abide by those lawses. and any ethnic group no matter where they come from, should live the american dreams and what it stands for. >> greta: what do you do about those illegally here in this country? have you thought about that? that's one of the thornier issues. >> well, clearly there's got to be a well thought-out process in doing this, a balance between respect for the law and all the talk about securing the border, which is important, is that we've got a mess when it comes to the federal agency that controls immigration. we've got peopl

serious about taking their findings as the new law of the land. that their findings about him were correct. he had to show he was serious about that, and if he did that, maybe they would lift the lifetime ban they had imposed upon him. the second thing he had to do was build public sympathy. try to remind people why they fell in love with lance armstrong in the first place. on the first front, failed miserably. he actually drew a line through the heart of the usada report. the heart of the report said that lance armstrong was actually a doping ringleader, that he wasn't just another cyclist who used peds, but that he organized his team to actually use dope. >> he wasn't accepting of that last night. >> no. he said absolutely not. and today they are not happy with that interview. on the second front about building public sympathy, i mean, my word, i felt like i was watching the titanic hit an iceberg. i felt like oprah kept trying to help him, like throwing him lifelines, like try to make yourself more sympathetic, please. all he could do is stare back with this reptilian look on his face a

you, mike. developing news from oakland where a controversial law enforcement expert is officially a consultant to the oakland police department. the city council voted to hire bill bratton in a raucous meeting that ran into the wee hours. now to amy live at city hall. >> he is controversial but william bratton is coming to oakland. there were so many people at the meeting they had to use four rooms for overflow crowd. all the people filling up city hall. the meeting lasted until 2:30 this morning. the issue was whether to hire former police

federal law of prestricting the sail of a cable network to to a foreign government. that's an example of what we do here favorable reporting even though it is not somebody we have use for. he was correct when he wrote this. gunn >> the most back breaking jobs in oil fields are held by labors shipped from africa and asia are paid fair sub stan thens wages. this is the country with which gore choose to abodo big handsh business is one ugly thing, unquote. certainly that is true. al gore sold out his principles to people who are not friendly to human rights who make massive money trafficking in oil and couldn't care less about the big passion global warming. in the eyes of american al gore has to be an unbelievable hypocrite. you would not know that by watching network news where the story was almost ignored. it is huge for american people. no longer are we getting fair news coverage from many broadcast operations. the print press is almost as bad but the new york sometimtimes dk the story to its credit. we are living in an age where the federal government is i am massing enormou

use if that use was generally recognized as being a sporting purpose. it was already the law, but he took executive action under that law to ban the importation of specific weapons. the gun control act of 1968 that gave him that power was passed in the wake of the assassinations robert kennedy and martin luther king. and it is what gave george h.w. bush to take that executive action that he took banning some rifles. in 1989, two months after that schoolyard massacre in stockton, california. years later, president clinton followed in his footsteps. president clinton, in 1998, took executive action as president to ban the importation of more than 50 different kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons. this was in addition to the assault weapons ban. this was further action taken by the president alone in 1998. he took executive action to ban the importation of certain kinds of guns. today, president obama became yet another modern president to use his executive authority for reform of gun-related laws. president obama did not use his authority as president as his predecessors did. and

will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. we will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully, not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. america will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe. and weapon will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad. for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world. >> i think that's the most important thing he said today because i think it's about war and peace. i think he wants peace with iran, somehow. and i think picking hagel and john kerry are part of that today. it will be interesting to look at the traffic tomorrow out of teheran and whether they respond to this or not. the president said it was time now for his generation to keep up the work on behalf of all americans and immigrants. this is very liberal. let's listen. >> authority is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters are can earn a living equal to our ef

laws. >> this will not happen unless the american people demand it. >> and he calls out the right wing machine that wants to kill reform. >> tonight, congresswoman jackie sleer of california on the president's major announcement. dan gross on the brady campaign and on whether the president's campaign can work. michael steele on the dispickble nra ad attacking the president's kids. >> plus, obama for america is getting the fan back together to fight the nra. >> it is time to get activated, again. >> former obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter joins me tonight. and congresswoman january shakowski on the return of the public option. >> good to have you with us tonight. folks, thanks for watching. there cannot be another false start in curbing gun violence in this country. today, the path for change was paved. president obama announced proposals for sweeping reforms to gun laws in this country in the wake of the horror at the wake of the horror at sandy hook elementary, it's gut check time for america. >> this is our first task as a soet. keeping our children safe. this is how we

weapons and a ten-round limit for magazines. and finally congress needs to help rather than hinder law enforcement as it does its job. we should get tougher on people who buy guns with the express purpose of turning around and selling them to criminals. and we should severely punish anybody who helps them do this. >> collin, what's your reading on what he did today? do enough? >> we finally have leadership from the white house. it's great to see a comprehensive approach to the gun violence. the vice president promised me personally we're going to get something done about this. it was a great day. >> when you hear it, what do you see that works? what do you see that will stop people who are mentally unstable or emotionally unstable or criminally intent from getting guns to use in these spray shootings is what we're really concerned with right now. >> that's the biggest way to impact that is at the point of sale and requiring a background check on all gun sales. they realize that background checks don't take guns from law-abiding people. they pass those every time. but those with a felon

constitution organic law. and saying that the constitution could not possibly have anticipated our every governing question. i invite you to imagine if you will, just close your eyes and just imagine the right wing outcry. if president obama called the constitution organic law. instead of saying this. liberals have always understood that, they understood it when president lincoln said it and when president obama said it. but conservatives have never, ever understood that when times change, so must we. and the day conservatives actually do understand that, they will no longer be conservatives. >>> obama land. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. yesterday we discovered the obama doctrine. put simply, it's to continue the american revolution well into the 21st century. defined economic equality for women, full equality all out for gay people. and full political and financial opportunity for people of color. everything about yesterday screamed with this manifesto from the makeup of the crowd to the people in the inaug

as the new law of the land. that their findings about him were correct. he had to show he was serious about that, and if he did that, maybe they would lift the lifetime ban they had imposed upon him. the second thing he had to do was build public sympathy. try to remind people why they fell in love with lance armstrong in the first place. on the first front, failed miserably. he actually drew a line through the heart of the usada report. the heart of the report said that lance armstrong was actually a doping ringleader, that he wasn't just another cyclist who used peds, but that he organized his team to actually use dope. >> he wasn't accepting of that last night. >> no. he said absolutely not. and today they are not happy with that interview. on the second front about building public sympathy, i mean, my word, i felt like i was watching the titanic hit an iceberg. i felt like oprah kept trying to help him, like throwing him lifelines, like try to make yourself more sympathetic, please. all he could do is stare back with this reptilian look on his face and really have no sense

will sign the measure into law. >>> and tonight, in further breaking news, as slow as house republicans were to act in response to hurricane sandy, tonight's other major news is about how fast new york state was able to move to respond to a different kind of disaster. tonight one month and one day after the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut, a town that is only about nine miles from the new york-connecticut border, tonight the state of new york has become the first state in the country since that tragedy to reform its gun laws. and it reformed its gun laws dramatically. as of tonight, as of tonight, new york has just enacted the toughest set of gun laws in the country. the state senate, which is run by a republican-dominated coalition passed the measure last night by a vote of 43-18. that was last night. then it was this afternoon the heavily democratic assembly voting. the margin in the assembly was 144-43. and then tonight, less than an hour after it won final passage in the legislature, governor andrew cuomo signed it, signed it into la

killed. then that was followed by another long and ultimately very bloody standoff between law enforcement and this very well-armed group of people. it was a 50-day standoff in waco that ended in a massive fire and many, many fatalities. >> good evening. it appears tonight that david koresh, who believed that he was the son of god, perished today in a setting that closely resembled hell. and apparently, he took more than 85 of his followers with him, including it's estimated 17 children. >> what happened at waco was an absolute nightmare. but on parts of the very far right, on the anti-government far right fringe, it was seen not just as a nightmare but as a conspiracy, as a government conspiracy, as something that was ginned up and in fact faked by the government to create a big enough, scary enough situation that it would justify taking away everyone's guns. a freshman republican congressman from texas at the time, a congressman named steve stockman, even wrote in an article in "guns & ammo" magazine that waco was a government execution. he said, "waco was supposed to be a wa

those laws were written it was one bullet and we could never have foreseen uzi machine guns in the hands of crazy people that want to massacre your children. i'm very much for the strict background checks. i hope that they could actually work. it's going to add to the price. they can't do the background checks now. i'm all for enforcing laws we already have on the books before we start writing a million more laws. however, i think rational people feel like they don't want any crazy person to have uzi machine guns with 30 bullets -- >> i do think if you made the penalty for a crime using the guns, if you tripled the penalty, that would have to have some kind of impact on whether or not even criminals choose to use that type of a weapon. if you really were serious about ed and said i'm going to lay down the law. i don't care. it's a different penalty if you use a gun or this type of crazy gun. >> maybe it's a lot of all of the above we really should be looking at. i'm telling you, if i were a parent at sandy hook who'd lost their child, i would have wanted somebody there to protect t

under the law. for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. >> as part of his agenda, the president also focused on immigration reform and spoke at length about climate control. as the commander in chief exited the stage and began walking into the capitol, cameras were rolling as he paused to savor the moment. >> i want to take a look one more time. i'm not going to see this again. >> nice little moment there. >>> joining us now, chief white house correspondent from "politico," mike allen. what's your overall take on the aftermath of yesterday? >> first off, where's my bloody? they offered me starbucks. >> you want a bloody mary? extra vodka in his, please. president obama saying what he's wanted to say for ten years. the president unleashed unabashed, unrestrained knowing that he has the high ground. republicans, very dispirited yesterday. they realize that any leverage they thought they had with this president going into the next couple weeks evaporated. they saw how strong he was, how aggressive he was and to be pushing th

more than 400 new laws that took effect in the u.s. this week, even though not one of you banned these. [ laughter ] i cannot -- do you have one of those? >> miles: i've never worn then. >> jimmy: you look like someone that would wear them. [ laughter ] >> miles: what is that supposed to mean? why would you? why would you? >> jimmy: i'm just kidding. i mean, does anyone out there wear those things? those gorilla feet things? i mean, imagine -- you run in it and it -- and -- >> miles: peel them off. every toe is like -- [ laughter ] i might get a pair. ♪ >> jimmy: thank you, lobsters, for always looking like you're putting things in quotes. [ laughter ] >> miles: yeah, great. [ applause ] ♪ >> jimmy: thank you, co-worker who answers the question "how were your holidays?" with an insane amount of detail, for not understanding that all i wanted was a simple, "good." "well, first, me and margie took the kids up." [ laughter ] ♪ thank you, college bowl games, for being, at best, the third most important type of bowl for college students. ♪ thank you, gyms, for reporting a 30% rise i

to us talk about it. in the past campaign in 2012, roe v. wade was called settled law. i understand why both sides are so passionate about how they feel. this makes a mockery of the pro-choice movement. >> andrea: it is also pretty insensitive to women who have had abortions, too. >> dana: certainly. >> greg: a barry white song. >> andrea: they put a man out there. honestly, do we as women, whether you're pro-life or not do we want to hear a man who has no idea what it's like to be pegnant or have an unexpected pregnancy lecturing us or trivializing it? >> greg: i thought this was a pro-life ad making light of the caleer attitude toward abortion. no it was just cavalier attitude toward abortion. if they had guts they would have said a child saying hi, mom, i would have respected your right to abort me. but they never would have done that. there is something disturbing using african-american man doing this. like racist ad, aryan nation group did it. put a black guy up there to say thank you for the abortion. all of it doesn't work. >> andrea: do you think this guy should fire his age

protect americans with laws that do not harm law abiding citizens. that means that any new gun laws must allow we, the people, to protect ourselves as the founding fathers mandated. talking points has no problem with background checks. or with gun registration. after all, we register our cars. but these things should be decided by the individual states, not the federal government. if the state like new york wants to ban assault rifles, fine. but wyoming may not want to do that. and the feds should respect the states' rights. what president obama can do is make all gun crimes federal crimes. congress can forbid individuals from crossing state lines with certain types of weapons. bank robbery is a federal crime. so is some drug dealing. why not put gun felonies in that category? let's take a look at chicago which has banned handguns. more people were murdered by guns in chicago in 2012 last year than were killed among coalition forces in afghanistan. obviously the gun ban in coshocton doesn't work. do we all get that? what would work is a 10-year mandatory federal prison term for anyone co

, only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable. what is the nra strategy when it comes to this debate? here is tom foreman with an out front investigation on how the nra gets what it wants. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? >> in a hard-hitting response to calls to are new gun restriction, the nra has rolled out this ad attacking the white house saying the president is happy to have armed secret service agents protecting his children but for everyone else -- >> he is just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. >> reporter: it is the latest muscle flex by the gun group superpac which last year spent more than $16 million from its deep war chest to influence political races. that's not a tremendous amount for such efforts. big oil, the pharmacy industry, even retired people have more and better funded lobbyists. the gun group uses its money and membership effectively often targeting early any lawmaker that threatens to go against gun rights. larry sab ba toe is at the university of virginia

republicans are dealing with public opinion that is influx. you have had a shift in favor of stricter gun laws since the newtown shootings. you have had a greater openness toward leaguization. >> the said show is up next. when al gore lost in 2000, lost the electoral college vote he is the one who started saying that he lost because of his support and bill clinton's support for gun control measures including the assault weapons ban. other democrats began to say the same thing. well, that gave the nr afar more power than deserved. i didn't believe it was true then and i don't believe. >> west virginia, kentucky, tennessee that's where he was finding his problems, right? >> where republicans win anyway. the people who vote for republicans. in those states are not going to vote for a democrat. it doesn't matter what he does. >> i'm not going to argue except on these points of electoral college votes. it used to be we got arkansas the democratic side. west virginia was consistently -- anyway, the guys on the far right here. fear factor. kentucky senator rand paul wants to run for president is conc

republican law americas warning them he will not negotiate on the matter adding brinkmanship would be absurd and irresponsible. >> raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend more, all it does is say that america will pay it's bills. we are not a dead beat nation. >> in a statement john fwhier says the consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling are real so, too, are the consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved. republican senator mike lee of ue ah taw says the government needs put into place structural spending reform because simple spending cuts will no longer do the job. we are going to face another credit downgrade i fear because we will face it again without think being the way paushiwashi spends money. >> he is willing to work with republicans to reign in spending. he wants to conduct those talks separately from the gop to raise the debt ceiling. he hopes by doing so he can avert a first ever national default. >> kelly wright live in washington. thank you. >>> it is time to take a look at who is talking. another big battle on capitol hi

pass laws to protect our citizens. so, i mean, this is the fear that they keep throwing out there, and they're not trying to get to someone that's a moderate. they're going straight to their hard core right people. that's why they lost the presidency, that's why they lost a few seats in the house. they have to start, excuse me, coming together to get not just on the gun issue, on an awful lot of issues. look what happened the other day with sandy. it was democrats that got that bill over the line. but, you know, it should be working together for all of the american people, and right now all the polls are showing the american people, including nra members, including gun owners, are saying we should be doing something. one of the things that we noticed, most people, nra members, gun owners, didn't know that everybody was not going through a background check. they didn't realize that 40% of gun owners are getting their guns without going through a background check. these are all law-abiding citizens when they go to buy their guns. why isn't everybody else? that's what we're fighting for,

to help them figure it out a little bit with visual and audio assistance. >> i signed into law $1.4 trillion in spending cuts. two week ago, i signed a bill into law regarding revenue, by making sure the wealthiest americans begin to pay their fair share. when you add the money and the interest payments on the debt, that adds up to about $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the past two years, not counting the $400 billion saved from winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan. so we have made progress. >> didn't president clinton say it was all about math? republicans can posture on the debt ceiling all they want. they know the truth. listen to john boehner two years ago. >> do you agree that defaulting on the full faith and credit of the united states would be a financial disaster? >> that would be a financial disaster for our country and the worldwide country. >> oh, financial disaster. apparently this is not a game. timothy geithner says that we will hit the debt limit between mid february and early march. the financial security of millions of americans is at stake. >> if c

control law in the wake of the sandy hook shooting tragedy. last night, lawmakers approved andrew cuomo's aggressive plan. and assault weapons ban and storing an assault weapon will now be considered a misdemeanor. and police will have a registry for people who r have assault weapons and limits magazine capacity to seven rounds, i hope you don't have more than three intruders in your house and gun crime sentences will be increased. pistol holders and weapons holders must renew the bills every five years and protects legal gun owners from having their identities revealed. and if-- after last night's giant gun grab my next guest immediately expressed his outrage. >> tonight, we preach about saving lives. not long ago, i think a woman was in georgia, she has several young children, her husband showed her how to shoot, somebody broke into her home, came after her, she shot him, i believe, six times. tonight, we're going to pass legislation that if she had eight rounds in that chamber, instead of seven, she h'd be a criminal. we haven't saved any lives tonight except for one, the polit

our side saying, look, these guys are nuts, we've got to have sensible gun laws. and we do have to have sensible gun laws. let me tell you for every representative stockman, there's representative dent and fitzpatrick and gerlach who -- >> explain that because you know that suburban politics where you have republicans representing moderate political communities, and how will they react. >> not just philadelphia, but in st. louis, chicago, cleveland, and places like that, and those republicans are going to face a real tough decision. they stay with the nra and they endanger their re-election because in those districts, 70%, 80% of the people want these sensible measures. they want background checks for everyone, no exceptions. they want high capacity magazines banned. they want assault rifles banned. it's going to be a real test all over this country. >> michael steele is here. michael, you're a reasonable guy obviously. let's look at these numbers. "the washington post" numbers on gun show background checks, 88% support. this is a new "washington post" poll here. overwhelmingly sup

reject their legislation. i don't want to be considered part of that, but i will sign it into law. that is exactly the way that governor bob mcdonnell played it a year ago when virginia republicans got themselves nationally famous with their bill forcing unwanted and medically unnecessary ultra sounds on virginia women, right? bob mcdonnell did the same deal back then. he expressed surprise. what is this you are doing in the legislature, fellow republicans. i certainly did not expect this. this is not my priority. don't associate me with this. and then he signed it, thus earning himself the national nickname ever more of governor ultrasound. same deal. what is this? what are you doing there? i definitely don't want to be famous for that. democrats in the virginia capital tell us that if the surprised gerrymandering bill passes and the governor does sign it, they will ask the courts to declare it unconstitutional. but meanwhile, virginia republicans are also pushing a bill that would also change the state's rules for electing a president. based on the congressional maps that virginia rep

and mysteriously, they would even say no to their own ideas. >> this law failed by seven votes. when seven republicans, who had co-sponsored the bill, had co-sponsored the idea suddenly walked away from their own proposal after i endorsed it. so they make a proposal, sign on to the bill. i say, great. good idea. i turned around, they're gone. what happened? >> this was a hallmark of president obama's first term. republicans were going to say no, no, no, no matter what he offered. even if what he offered was their own idea in the first place. that is how it went for months and then that is how it went for years. and now, what's new? he is not doing that anymore. >> i have put forward a very clear principle. i will not negotiate around the debt ceiling. we're not going to play the same game that we saw happen in 2011. so we're not going to do that. i will not negotiate around the debt ceiling. we're not going to do that again. as i said earlier this week, one thing i will not compromise over is whether or not congress should pay the tab for a bill they've already racked up. what i will

two people. with so much focus now on gun laws, what kinds of guns are used, whether they're legal, what do you know at this point? >> reporter: well, we have been asking around as to whether or not this was a hand gun that was legally owned, legally purchased, what the background is on that gun. obviously there are agents that will handle that part of the investigation. i haven't been able to confirm anything on that end just yet. however, hand guns in the state of texas, you are legally allowed to carry a hand gun if you have the proper license and that sort of thing. however, just because you have that license doesn't mean you can carry guns on to a school campus. campuses and churches, there's a laundry list of places where you can't carry guns and school campuses are one of those. so as the sheriff here said in what i think was a school campus official said it's impossible to check the thousands and thousands of students that come through here, but in theory, this is not a place where you should have had a gun. >> all right, thank you very much. ed continues to work that story

quote, one is left to inquire whether the sandy hook shooting ever took place, at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation's news media have described. normally we wouldn't dignify these types of remarks by covering them but james tracy is a tenured professor at a public university. his comments have caused deep distress to the victims' families. we invited him to come on the program friday night. the declined. he gave us a statement, though, quote, i apologize for any additional anguish and grief my remarks, and how they have been taken out of context and misrepresented, may have caused the families that lost loved ones on december 14th. at the same time i believe what we can give them is a way to identify. after a report aired on friday professor tracey accused me on his blog of targeting him and his family. he posed it as a question in the headline of the "post" does anderson cooper want james tracy or his family members harmed? he includes a photo of me that looks like i'm in the middle of a rant. i'm not actually. that's a picture of me from an interview i did w

how careless handling of our information by law enforcement and news headlines endanger citizens privacy. >>> the pentagon says general john allen was cleared of sending potentially inappropriate e-mails to joe kelly. >>> senate majority leader harry reid appears to be reversing course and pushing ahead with possible gun legislation. after meeting with fellow senate democrats on tuesday, he told reporters he expects to have a free amendment process on gun legislation. while it's unclear if an assault weapons ban would be included, reid said he has agreed to take up measures called for by president obama. reid previously said he opposes a ban on assault weapons. >>> and now here's your "first look" at your dish of scrambled politics. president obama's half brother malik has decided to run for governor of a rural county in kenya. >>> the white house released video of president obama and first lady michelle surprising visitors on the white house tour. they shook hands with the shocked tourists as they walked through. >> here's a tweet of the stage at last night's white house staffer

new laws without the consent of the legislative branch. >> i actually think the president, he just doesn't have the guts to admit it, is not a believer in the second amendment. >> there are certain things in his executive orders that are un-american. in some ways they're even fascistic. >> he's a tyrant. he hates the second amendment. and he's un-american. righties are up in arms over the executive action signed by the president of the united states. the president's biggest orders include the nomination of an alcohol, tobacco, and firearms director. he asks for a study on gun violence prevention as wl as reports on safety technologies on stolen firearms. apparently, conservatives believe this is tyranny. today vice president joe biden detailed one of the major initiatives of the president's gun proposals. >> how do we make our streets and schools safer? with regard to our streets i believe and the president believes that cops make a difference. we're going to push again for another $4 billion in grants for the cops program. >> $4 billion for more cops on the streets and around scho

has never even passed a budget. tts rule of the law that by april 15th, you have to. so, we're saying we will extend the debt limit until the timeline where you have a budget, a road map. so you stop digging yourself in the hole and we get out of this problem. part of not having the budget has gotten us into this problem in the first place. >> the senate is had an operating under the 2011 budget control act. demanding the senate pass a budget really doesn't do anything. it also violates the so-called boehner rule, which requires any bill to have cuts equal to the rise of the debt ceiling. republicans are making up for this by saying congress will get paid -- will not get paid unless the senate passes a budget. even republican congressman darryl issa knows it's a violation of the 27th amendment not to pay congress. when told about the plan, issa said that's unconstitutional. he wants a paycheck. now republicans are claiming the plan will just withhold pay for congress. so all of them will get paid, no matter what. what is it? it's just a big sham. it's just a big game. nancy pel

are recognized as equal under the law. he is talking about doma, the supreme court argument to come. he is surrounded by the supreme court right this. and he talked about stonewall. talking about stonewall in an inaugural address, i was really profoundly moved by that. this is not just saying okay, these people helped elect me. this is saying this is a commitment. we're expanding the vision of dr. martin luther king jr. and we're talking about equal rights for all of us. he is talking about seneca falls. he is talking about women's rights and equal pay. and this was a very forward-looking, progressive, inclusive speech. >> i will say as a gay person that i am used to gay people being name checked in speeches, put in a list of demographic groups that you want to shout out to recognize that we exist, which is always nice. but to have the president articulate why the fight, the continuing struggle, the not at all settled struggle for equal rights is an american project, and to have that delivered from the inaugural lectern was i think -- felt personally was moving to me personally. but

wyoming who want to block any new federal gun law from being enforced. well, now it's texas that's up to it. state representative steve toth is proposing legislation that would make it against the law to enforce federal bans on ammunition or assault weapons in the lone star state, nullification back again. here he is. >> this is a hardened state. it isn't a good place for a criminal to show up and start shooting. we want to make sure that this legislation protects the second amendment gun rights and the tenth amendment, which is state sovereignty rights of texans. >> yahoo. when we start hearing things like state sovereignty, it's like that old pre-civil war talk of nullification. >>> next, former senator jim demint has called obama care, specifically the individual mandate, inconsistent with liberty. demint retired from the senate to head up the heritage foundation, a conservative think tank. the group released this year's index of economic freedom. the top ten have government-run health care. hong kong at number one has a publicly run system with most hospitals owned by the governme

complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see america as a land of opportunity. >> in many ways, this speech was progressives. this is what we have been waiting for to hear for four years. the president is older now, and certainly wiser to the position about how washington works. but at least for today he will not let trivial politics derail the progressive course that this country is on. president obama looked out to the crowd on the national mall today and saw the full scope of america, young and old, rich and poor, black, white, hispanic, asian. he recognized the moment. he captured it. the mission he is charged with today is perhaps greater than his mission of four years ago. in 2009, he was of course there to lead us out of this economic tragedy that we were living in. in 2013, he needs to lead this country and make it the country that we all want to achieve. >> you and i as citizens had the power to set this country's course

disagrees new gun law opponents want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue. is there room for a fear disagreeing with the president or some of the things he did not all of them, is there room with this president? >> i don't think so. he talked about the republican friendly media the other day. obviously, he's talking about talk radio and maybe fox and other websites. this is what he routinely does. rather than have a real conversation, and say, look, i think there are a lot of complicated issues involved here, maybe part gun, maybe part hollywood, maybe part breakdown of the family, let's have a national conversation about this. instead, it's my opponents don't care about the poor children who are suffering, they're not reading the letters that i'm reading, they don't really care and in fact, it's all about their ratings. well, people who believe in the second amendment dearly they happen to have heartfelt views, maybe he disagrees, that's his right, but they shouldn't be demonized. >> one thing i was troubled about today, i don't want another study on this. if there's another study.

about the hoax in the next few days. michael barr, abc news, new york. >> so sad. >>> and law enforcement officials are offering a $100,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest of a bank robber dubbed the ak-47 bandit. the suspect is wanted for holding up five banks last year in california, idaho and washington. in one heist he shot and wounded a police officer. and the fbi believes that he will strike again. >>> and firefighters in portland, oregon, used heavy cutting equipment to free a woman who was trapped in the tight space between two buildings. she was in there for four hours before being freed. the woman had been smoking on the roof of one of the buildings when she fell into that void which was only eight to ten inches wide. >>> important medical news for moms who are expecting. a new study confirms that the flu vaccine is safe for pregnant women and their babies. that's reassuring news since the current flu epidemic is raging. researchers found, going without the shot is risky. pregnant women who get the flu have a higher chance of fetal death. >>> now, some sports f

shooting practice feature, safety tips and state-by-state gun laws. >>> the white house has rejected a petition calling for texas to secede from the u.s. the response from the white house said that free and open debate is what makes this country work, but we don't let that debate tear us apart. >>> jenny sanford says she will not run for congress from south carolina against her ex-husband, mark sanford. she says, quote, i think my job as mom right now is much more important. >>> ann romney, wife of the republican presidential candidate, said during the 2012 campaign that she was a big fan of "dancing with the stars," but it's reported that romney said no to an invitation for her to appear as a contestant on that show. >>> former president bill clinton was a big hit at "the golden globes" and also popular backstage after his appearance on the broadcast. actress clare danes says she was invited to meet clinton in a private room. actress jessica alba was already in the room and so was actress rosario dawson. and that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." >>> and now for a look at t

their electoral laws. the republicans really want these states. they went for president obama in 2012. but they're controlled by republican governors and legislatures. changing the law in these states would have won 45 more electoral votes, electoral college votes for mitt romney. now, it wouldn't have been enough for him to beat president obama in 2012, but what about the next democrat? republicans, what are they doing? they're already scheming. in fact, they use the president's inauguration to get ahead in 2016. that's right, just yesterday while virginia state senator henry marsh attended the inauguration, virginia republicans realized they outnumber democrats by one vote. they ambushed the dems with a massive redistricting bill. republican governor bob mcdonnell says he doesn't like the dirty tricks, but he won't promise to veto it. >> obviously, the tactics that were used yesterday was a surprise, and i don't think that that's the way business should be done. but i haven't looked at the bill. >> oh, i bet you haven't. michigan's republican governor rick snyder might support

journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. for if we are truly created equal, surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. >> today's inaugural poem came from richard blanco, a cuban american who says negotiating his identity as an american and as a gay man is the wellspring of his poetry. he said he has lived the american dream as being named the fifth inaugural poet. here's part of the poem he read today to the president and to the world. >> we head home through the gloss of rain or weight of snow or the plum blush of dusk, but always, always home, always under one sky, our sky. and always one moon like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop and every window of one country. >> richard blanco joins me now. what a day this must have been for you. the first latino american to read a poem at this inaugural, the first gay american to do that. what was it like? >> the actual event was just amazing. what i've come away with, of course, i've never done this before. the platform actually seemed very intimate, and

laws on gun trafficking. but senator schumer, just as i challenged wayne lapierre of the nra very hard when this came up, i challenge you as well with a question of, is this really going to make a difference? and rich lawry wrote something that caught my attention in "the national review." no one can write a law against mothers owning guns that one day might be turned against them by deranged sons who then commit horrific acts of murder-suicide. shooting rampages are hard to prevent because they are so often committed by young men with no criminal records who want to die. these are adult facts that don't intrude on the childish world of white house policy making. he notes adam lanza in newtown, his own mother of course passed a background check. >> here's the bottom line. these laws are not perfect. and you'll always find certain exceptions. but they make a huge difference. every major person who has studied the brady law, which is the most significant gun safety law we've passed in the last 20 years has said it has reduced gun violence dramatically. law enforcement is totally for